Splasm Software Discussions

How do I enter a mortgage payment so that the interest is an expense, and the principal is "transferred" to the mortgage account I have set up?

I would also like to be able to do that. So far, the only way I have been able to do that is to make two entries: one for the transfer of money from your checkbook account to the mortgage account for the total payment, and then record the interest expense in the mortgage account.

Wouldn't you always have to do that manually, considering that principal and interest changes from month to month?
Just curious. My bank sends me a statement at the end of the year showing how much interest was paid, and every month they let me know the breakdown. For ME, the single payment to the bank is enough. But that's just ME.

In your case, one entry labeled as principal and interest would be all that is needed. However for those of us wants to keep track of the mortgage balance, two entries are needed.

Maybe it's because I have a HELOC and not a conventional mortgage, but my monthly statements show the exact amount of principal remaining.

Perhaps a short explanation of AMORTIZATION is in order. Forgive me if you already know this.

Although a monthly mortgage payment is a fixed amoaunt, the actual amounts credited to principal and interest change from month to month. That is, each payment lowers the outstanding balance due (the principal), to which the fixed interest rate is then applied in the following month. In the beginning of the term, very little principal is paid; the payments are mostly interest. As the end approaches, the payments are mostly principal and interest is a small amount. The fixed payment represents the total of the changing values of these, which does not change monthly.

Take a look here http://mortgage-x.com/calculators/amortization.htm and you can see how the interest decreases as the loan amount (principal) drops.

Because of the monthly changing of the principal/interest ratio, you can't auto-schedule a fixed amount of either.

Just a guess, but you probably received an AMORTIZATION TABLE when you got your mortgage.

I wasn't looking for auto-scheduling of mortgage payments. It's my recollection that when I was using Quicken, I could record with one entry the payment amount to the mortgage company and how much of that payment would be recorded as interest expense and how much the mortgage balance should be reduced. I don't think I can do that with CheckBook Pro with one entry.